With what dauntless courage and unselfish devotion the soldiers of Kansas followed the flag; with what confident faith and sublime self-sacrifice they marched and fought, and suffered and died, the unexampled losses they sustained in battle will conclusively prove. In January, 1867, the Provost Marshal General of the army, Gen. J. B. Fry, made a report showing the proportion of soldiers killed in battle, per thousand men, from each loyal State. Kansas headed the list with 61.01; Vermont ranked second, with 58.22; and Massachusetts third, 47.76. General Fry, in commenting on this notable record, says: “Kansas shows the highest battle mortality of the table.... The same singularly martial disposition which induced about half of the able-bodied men of the State to enter the army without bounty, may be supposed to have increased their exposure to the casualties of battle after they were in the service.” In all that I have said concerning the record of Kansas during the war, I have simply quoted the official figures. But these are a eulogy far above and far beyond the compass of words. They establish three remarkable facts: First, that Kansas was the only State in the Union that filled, and more than filled, the quotas assigned her; second, that she furnished more soldiers, in proportion to population, than any other State; and, third, that the proportion of her soldiers killed in battle was larger than that of any other State. But not alone in the number of soldiers furnished and their casualties in battle, was Kansas a notable figure during the civil war. With Missouri on her eastern border, the Indian Territory south, and westward the vast plains, swarming with savages, the young State was almost surrounded by foes, and the position of her people was one of extreme exposure and peril. Her volunteer regiments were soon ordered to distant points. The First and Seventh were in the Army of the Tennessee; the Eighth was serving in the Army of the Cumberland; the Tenth was with the Army of the Gulf; the Fifth was with the Army of the Southwest; and nearly all the others were attached to the Army of the Frontier. Thus it happened that the borders of Kansas were frequently left exposed to the fury of her enemies, and were repeatedly invaded by swarms of guerrillas. More than a dozen cities and towns of Kansas were sacked and burned by the cowardly, brutal miscreants who followed Quantrell, Anderson, Todd, and other border chiefs. And at last, in October, 1864, the strong army of the Confederate General Price moved northward to invade the State, expecting to capture Fort Leavenworth, and drive from this region of country all the loyal people.